Alec leaned against a fence watching a coal black mare and foal play. In a few days the owner of both would be coming to take them home, and would be seeing the foal for the first time. A shrill whistle brought Alec's attention from the two to his great and mighty stallion The Black. A smile crept across his face, it had been a few months but his stallion had adjusted fairly well to Hopeful Farm.

"Alec! Alec you had better come see this!" A man shouted from the foaling barn, "Coming Henry!" Alec shouted back running off towards the barn. Henry lead him down the aisle to a foaling box where a mare lay giving birth to her first foal. "Henry there's something wrong I can feel it." Henry put a hand on Alec's shoulder nodding agreeably, "I called for the vet Alec, he said he was over at Two Leaf Acres checking on some calves. He should be here soon." Alec could only watch and wonder what was going to go wrong.

Henry sent Alec to the main house to bring him some aspirin, inside he didn't want the kid to know that the mare and foal might not make it to his opinion. Alec nodded saying he would be right back as the vet walked into the barn. At first glimpse of the mare the vet knew what was wrong. "I'm going to do all that I can to save this mare, we might lose the foal in the process. Heck, I'm not going to lie to you, we may even lose the mare. Possibly even both of them, I'm sure you know that some mares just can't take foaling." Henry nodded, and went to get what the vet needed.

Alec walked back towards the barn with Henry's aspirin and a phone call running through his head. The mare that was foaling was named Egyptian Star, and her owner just called to see how she was doing. Alec told him all he knew, since Henry and the vet where in the barn and he was in the main house. The owner kept Alec at the house with a few more questions like how was Too Late 4 U and Two Steps doing. Alec smiled at the thought of the mare and colt he had seen earlier.

When he reached the barn Henry greeted him, "Well Alec the mare and filly are doing fine, the vet said to watch the mare on account that she is weak from foaling." Alec nodded and told Henry what the owner had said. "he is also coming tomorrow to get Too Late and her colt. So he said he would look and see what E. S. had." Henry nodded and the two headed once again for the main house, the sun had set and the next day was New Years.

The next morning Alec awoke with a cold feeling, getting up quickly he dressed and then headed down to check on all the horses starting with the stallions and finishing with the foaling barn. As he silently went through the barns he noted that everything was fine. Until he reached the foaling barn, all the mares and foals where fine. He heard a small cry as he neared E. S's stall, he opened the cover and looked inside. The filly was standing and trying to get her dam up off the floor. Alec's heart sank, E. S had died during the night.

The foal would obviously have to be bottle fed, unless Fire Dance would consent to be a surrogate dam the foal. He had to try, he grabbed a bottle of peppermint scented water he washed the foal down with it and then walked over to Fire, who had lost her foal the same day E.S's filly was born. Soon he had her washed down too, and then introduced the foal to her. He knew that sometimes the tricked worked while other times the mares rejected the foal. A happy sigh escaped his lips as Fire allowed the young foal to feed. "Alec, Egyptian Star's owner is here." Alec nodded and headed down the aisle dreading what he would have to tell the owner.

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